Selena Lake and her husband Kevin Lake check out her online condo listing.
Packing tape and cardboard boxes, vacuums and window cleaner, and posters and newspaper ads were all useful when Selena Lake decided to sell her home. But one tool is more valuable than all others combined, she said: the Internet.
Lake focused on housing websites to advertise her property. The computer is the first place most people look for a new home, she said.
“It’s very convenient because most of my questions come from email,” said Lake. “I can simply send them an answer or another picture if they want.”
Lake decided to sell her Bronson Avenue apartment without a realtor because she said homes there have been selling fast.
Like many others who choose to sell their own home, she also wanted to save paying real estate commission, she said, which runs about five per cent of the house’s sale price.
Internet listings have greatly opened up real estate, said Chris Rhodes, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Rhodes and Company. Sellers can reach many more potential buyers on the web, he said, then they can target those looking for their type of house based on city region, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and price range.
Realtors are busy organizing their inventory online this month, as people start looking for a house with the idea to move in this summer.
The Internet lets people peer deeper into someone’s home, Rhodes said. Pictures, floor plans, videos or virtual tours have become vital in the online listing.
“People are now making decisions on whether or not to call a particular realtor or to visit a house based on the pictures that they see (on the web),” he said.
Realtors simply must advertise online, just as do people selling their own homes, said Jeffrey Mziray, a sales representative at ReMax Metro-City Realty.
The Internet lets him connect quicker and with more clients. Plus, the more properties he can look at online in a neighbourhood, the better he can asses property values, he said.
But with so many more houses available for both buyers and realtors to peruse on the web, Mziray said people who sell their own homes are subject to more risks online.
There is no real estate agent to act as a buffer between themselves and strangers interested in their home, he said. Most websites that list homes for sale by owner publish the sellers’ address, email address and phone number so people can contact them directly.
Internet listings can bring strangers into your house, he said, and some might not be qualified to buy it.
If people negotiate their own sale agreement, he added, they should have a lawyer check over their contract right away to make sure both parties have correctly and completely signed it.
“I did have one funny-sounding email,” said Lake. Someone emailed her through her online listing and asked for bank account numbers.
But Lake, a government web manager, said she feels comfortable on the Internet. Posting her phone numbers has not troubled her, she said, although she has taken some precautions.
She has used a temporary email account she plans to delete after the sale and always has someone accompany her when she shows her home to potential buyers.
One of Lake’s listings is with Grape Vine Home Marketing Consultants, a company that helps people sell their own homes around Ottawa.
“We’ve never had a problem,” said owner Lorraine Brownrigg. Grape Vine staff have cautioned people not to post unnecessary personal details, such as names, online, she said. They have also warned sellers about spamming.
Online advertising will not kill off some traditional real estate advertising tools, Mziray said. People who call about a house after seeing a for sale sign are serious potential clients, he said.
But the Internet is going to keep growing, said Brownrigg, because it has made almost every part of the real estate business easier for consumers.
More than 2,000 people listed their homes on Grape Vine last year, she said. The website gets 200,000 hits each month.
Lake said she has received many email responses from potential buyers. “It’s very promising.”